Harry rues missed chances

Harry Redknapp has put Tuesday&#8217;s 3-1 defeat at Blackpool down to missed chances and below par defending at the other end.

Harry Redknapp has put Tuesday’s 3-1 defeat at Blackpool down to missed chances and below par defending at the other end.

The manager bemoaned the penalty given away after 17 minutes that enabled the Seasiders to get a head start before a host of opportunities went begging in the second half with the scores at 2-0.

Jermain Defoe, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Steven Pienaar, Niko Kranjcar and Luka Modric all had chances to find the net before Blackpool added a third 10 minutes from time. Pavlyuchenko struck a consolation with the last kick of the game.

Harry feels an earlier strike could have changed the course of the game, but he was instead left to lament the end of a four-match winning streak while paying credit to the hosts.

He said: “You can’t miss chances like we did and expect to win. Every time they attacked they scored, but we missed chance after chance.

“We gave away a bad penalty through a rash challenge that shouldn’t have happened, and then we were attacking on the edge of their box, they break and suddenly it’s 2-0.

“We needed a goal and if we’d have scored one we could’ve gone on and won, but we kept missing great chances at close range. I’ve never seen a game with so many chances.

“If we’d have got it back to 2-1 it could have turned the game upside-down, but I don’t know how we went 2-0 down in the first place."

Harry continued: “I knew it would be difficult. I saw them against Manchester United the other week when they went 2-0 up, but United pulled a goal back and it changed everything. We needed that goal tonight.

“It’s a damaging result. It’s a game I thought we could win. But sometimes that’s how it goes and full credit to Blackpool – they kept going and ran their socks off.

“Liverpool have lost here recently, Man United could have lost here, so it happens. Credit to them for what they’ve achieved.

“We’d been on a good run with four straight wins. We wanted to make it five but it wasn’t to be. We’ve just got to pick ourselves up again.”